An Instance of Injury and Friendship
by fringeperson
Summary: Kagome didn't expect to find an injured demon leaning up against the well, but she's kind-hearted and logical enough about everything to be willing to help him when he's not even awake enough to ask for help. Don't own. One-shot. Complete.


Kagome halted abruptly as she pushed herself up onto the edge of the well and stared at the form that was resting on the grass beside it. Spotting the blood, Kagome decided that _resting_ probably wasn't the right word. All the same, she moved _very_ carefully and almost _painfully_ slowly as she swung first one leg, then the other, over the side of the well and gently settled her feet on the grass, hoping to not disturb the injured figure.

She'd just suffered through her finals and gotten the results back. She was graduated at last! Now she didn't have to worry about tests, her friends bugging her to date Hojo, or her grandfather's incredible excuses. She _also_ now had a _very_ good reason to _not_ wear her school uniform in the feudal era, and wouldn't let InuYasha bully her into wearing them again. She'd sold all of her uniforms back to the uniform shop to be re-sold second hand. She'd sold all her text books too, except for the ones on anatomy and biology and botany. _Those_ were _useful_ in the feudal era, what with all the injuries and illnesses people got, and all the herbal remedies she was being taught by Kaede.

Of course, learning herbal remedies didn't mean she left her medical supplies at home, which was just as well, considering the injured party she'd happened upon _immediately_ she'd exited the well.

Kneeling down, Kagome carefully pulled her new brown backpack off her back, opened it, and pulled out her first aid kit, a water-bottle, and a soft cloth.

Tentatively, she started removing broken armour, then pushed aside the torn white cloth that had been stained red with blood, and carefully began cleaning the bloody gashes that were prominent across an otherwise perfect chest.

She didn't know how he'd gotten to be in such a state, but she was _quite_ certain that it _couldn't_ be good. At the same time though, she was slightly surprised that InuYasha hadn't come running already, what with the smell of blood near the well.

Kagome paused slightly in her work and looked around. Spotting Kikyo's soul stealers circling above InuYasha's forest, she huffed absently, realising what was distracting him. Honestly, she didn't understand InuYasha any more. If _she_ was capable of growing up and moving past a first and unrequited like-you-_very_-much for someone who couldn't care less about her, then why couldn't _he_ do the same?

Still, for now it was actually a good thing, as it meant she had some peace and quiet in which to tend her patient. She turned back to him and continued to cleans his wounds. She'd finished cleaning, disinfecting, treating and binding all the wounds and injuries she could find and had moved on to mending the ruined kimono before he began to stir.

Setting aside the cloth and sewing kit, Kagome dug into her bag and drew out a thick porcelain cup – sturdy enough to survive travel in her bag – that she usually kept for Shippo to use, since he said the plastic cups made the water smell funny, as well as another bottle of water.

"Un..." he groaned.

Kagome poured some water and shifted closer to him.

"Please drink something," she said softly, bringing the cup close to his mouth. He had propped himself up against the well already when she found him, and having found no blood on the back of his kimono, Kagome hadn't felt the need to move him. Being upright made breathing a little easier after all. "You've lost a lot of blood."

"Un..." he objected again, even as he leant forward slightly towards the smell of the clean water in the cup, his lips parting.

Obediently, Kagome pressed the cup to his lower lip and tilted it up enough to let the water trickle into his mouth slowly. When the cup was drained, she took it back, but his eyes were open now, and the water had revived him enough to glare at her once he was no longer focused on slaking his thirst.

"I'm not going to ask if you feel better," she said. "You're awake, so you can probably feel everything more acutely than when you were unconscious."

He nodded once, slowly. "What do you want?" he asked dispassionately.

Kagome shrugged and shook her head. "Nothing in particular," she said. "Answers might be nice," she allowed. "Like what you're doing here in the state you're in?"

"The Lord of the North tried to take my territory," Sesshoumaru answered. "I sent Rin away with Jaken and Ah-Un to my half-brother's village for their safety before the fight began."

Kagome poured another cup of water. "It's a case of you look bad, but the other guy came off even worse, huh?" she mumbled as she brought the cup to Sesshoumaru's lips once more.

"The Lord of the North is dead," Sesshoumaru said shortly, taking a sip from the cup. "I have even _more_ territory to patrol now." He sounded slightly smug about that, despite the way he'd phrased it to sound slightly displeased.

Kagome frowned. The only demon of any kind of ranking that she knew from the north was Koga, but she was fairly sure he was only 'prince' of the wolf tribes, not a Lord on the same level as Sesshoumaru. All the same, she felt like she needed to ask. "This Lord of the North, what sort of demon was he?"

"A weasel," Sesshoumaru answered with a grunt. "Despicable creatures, the whole race of them, with no redeeming features except for their tenacity, and that is only useful when they are allies."

Kagome smiled slightly. She knew Koga wasn't Lord of the North material. If the Lords were all near on on the same level as Sesshoumaru, then why would they need jewel shards? Simply, they wouldn't. Still, it surprised her a little that one of the Lords had tried to take Sesshoumaru's lands so recently. Did they hear rumours of InuYasha's supposed near-victories over the older Inu-sibling? Had the news of Sesshoumaru's missing arm _only just_ reached the Lord of the North, so many years after the loss?

Sesshoumaru finished his second cup of water and closed his eyes again, his breathing evening out in sleep.

Kagome wasn't sure whether she was honoured that he trusted her enough to sleep in her presence or offended that he didn't think her a danger to him even in his current state. Kagome decided it wasn't worth dwelling on as she put the cup back in her bag and returned to mending Sesshoumaru's kimono.

She had it finished to her satisfaction before there was any sign of Sesshoumaru waking again. She was just beginning to try and wash out some of the bloodstains with her bottled water and soap when she heard her name being yelled.

"Kagome!"

It couldn't have been her Shippo though, could it? Or Sango, or even Miroku who would have made leery comments about her being alone with a half-dressed male. No, it _had_ to be InuYasha, fresh from having just left Kikyo.

InuYasha's forest completely surrounded the well, and the breeze was so light, so gentle, it wouldn't have carried her scent – or that of Sesshoumaru – to Shippo in the village. That barely-there puff of air wasn't going in the right direction anyway. It _had_, however, brought her scent to InuYasha when he finally left Kikyo, as he was going to have to travel past the bone eater's well to reach the village anyway.

"What are you doing helping that bastard!" InuYasha demanded loudly.

"Obviously, I'm _helping _him, InuYasha," Kagome answered, rolling her eyes and hoping that Shippo picked up on InuYasha's yelling. Really, she was surpised he hadn't woken Sesshoumaru already with that first yell.

"But why? He's _Sesshoumaru_!" InuYasha insisted.

"Kagome!"

She smiled as she looked up to see Shippo on Kirara's head, flying down to them, Miroku and Sango on the two-tail's back.

"Hey guys," she greeted with a smile.

"Kagome, what's going on?" Sango asked, a worried frown creasing a line between her eyebrows as she took in the scene once they'd touched down.

"That's just what I was askin'!" InuYasha growled. "I don't get why you're helping the bastard. _He's tried to kill you before_!"

Kagome narrowed her eyes at the half-demon. She'd had it with his attitude. Between her friends going on about her 'messed up love life', finally getting Hojo to understand that she _wasn't_ interested in him that way, and passing all her final exams, Kagome had also managed to fit in a little self-examination.

When she'd met InuYasha he'd immediately belittled her, then tried to kill her, and then he really didn't much care about her safety in general when he'd supposedly agreed to protect her, and actually had been the cause for more of Kagome's life-threatening situations than anybody except for Naraku. When she'd met Sesshoumaru, he'd generally ignored her until she'd done something that he actually found personally offensive (succeeding where he, and even InuYasha, had failed), and then he'd only made the one real go of it back in his father's tomb. After that, his only other (few) attempts on her life came in direct reaction to her foolishly defending InuYasha from him. Sesshoumaru didn't actively seek violence with anybody really. InuYasha really did seem to be the only one Sesshoumaru actually actively sought out to do battle with.

"Sesshoumaru has been the one responsible for less of my near-death experiences than _you_ InuYasha!" Kagome snapped. "And unlike you, he's never held a grudge against me for longer than the one visit at a time!"

All her friends, even Kirara, blinked in surprise at this small spurt of vitriol from their cheerful and forgiving friend, each one of them turning her words over in their minds, trying to verify the validity of the claim. All except InuYasha of course, who simply took umbrage at the accusations levelled against him.

And levelled the Tetsusaiga at Kagome.

"Defence rests," Kagome muttered with a frown. "Sit boy!"

The resulting heavy impact woke Sesshoumaru again, though once open his golden eyes narrowed at the sight of his half-brother.

"Don't mind him," Kagome said gently, grabbing out Shippo's cup again and filling it with water, bringing it to Sesshoumaru's lips. "He's just being an idiot, as usual. Nothing you need to strain your injuries over."

Sesshoumaru huffed once, possibly in amusement, before accepting the water.

"Kagome," Shippo said softly, tugging on her jeans to get her attention.

"Yes Shippo?" she answered, not altering the very slight angle she held the cup at as she gave her boy her attention. Sesshoumaru wouldn't be able to drink too fast at that angle.

"I'm gonna go back to the village and tell Rin that Sesshoumaru-sama is here. She's been missing him between our games," the fox-boy said.

Kagome smiled. "Thank you Shippo, that's very thoughtful," she said, then cast her eye over Sesshoumaru again, even as he drank and listened to them. "I'd guess he'll be all healed by tomorrow noon at the latest, but don't tell her that he's hurt alright? No need for us to worry her at all."

Shippo nodded, smiling eagerly up at his adoptive mother before rushing off.

Kagome checked how Sesshoumaru was drinking in time to see him empty the cup. She removed it from his lips and gave her other friends a meaningful look, glancing at InuYasha.

Sango and Miroku nodded, and knocked him out with their own weapons before loading him onto Kirara's back and taking him away.

"I see," Sesshoumaru said. "It isn't InuYasha who leads them, but you. I had wondered why they would follow my worthless half-brother. Now I am left to wonder only why _you_ do."

Kagome turned back to Sesshoumaru and sighed. "In part, because he doesn't give me much choice," she admitted. "He's also useful enough for killing the demons who keep getting between me and my duty."

"Your duty?" Sesshoumaru probed.

"The Shikon Jewel is my duty," Kagome clarified. "His obsession with Kikyo and Naraku are annoying, but useful enough at times."

Sesshoumaru smirked. "He follows you and doesn't even realise it," he observed.

"Oh no, he calls me 'his shard detector' enough that he knows he's following me," Kagome corrected. "He doesn't realise that I'm the one _in_ _charge_ though, and _that's_ the difference. That took me a little while to realise actually," she admitted a little sheepishly.

"Your name is Kagome, isn't it?" Sesshoumaru asked suddenly.

Kagome blinked in surprise at the abrupt change in the direction of conversation.  
"That _is_ what the fox-child called you just now. It _is_ your name, correct?"

Kagome nodded. "Yes," she answered. "Kagome Higurashi," she smiled. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Sesshoumaru of the Western and Northern Lands."

Sesshoumaru smirked. "A pleasure shared, Kagome Higurashi," he answered. "And this Sesshoumaru thanks you for your healing. Without aid, it would have taken until at least dawn two days hence. This Sesshoumaru dislikes the prospect of being weakened for so long."

Kagome nodded in acceptance of his gratitude, and for a while they settled into silence, during which time Kagome returned to gently washing the bloodstains out of Sesshoumaru's clothing.

"This one has never heard the name Higurashi before, however," he said after a time, breaking the quiet.

Kagome's motions paused a moment before continuing. "Perhaps my ancestor has not taken up the name yet then," she suggested. "The shrine of my family has not yet been built either, so it would not surprise me."

Sesshoumaru frowned a moment as he stared off into the distance, then looked at her. "You come from another time," he said. "One that has not yet come to pass."

Kagome nodded. "The well you rest against is the portal between this time and the time I was born to. I passed through it accidentally in my fifteenth year. Shortly after I accidentally shattered the Shikon, and fell through the well once more, InuYasha passed through it and fetched me back. A demon called Yura sent hair through it once. Since then, only InuYasha and I have passed through, despite both my younger brother and Shippo having tried."

Sesshoumaru nodded in acceptance of this information. "You have a life beyond this time."

"Of course," Kagome answered, though it hadn't been a question. "I have a little brother who I love and am frustrated by in equal measure. I have a mother who lives for the happiness of my brother and me. I have a grandfather who incorrectly believes that he has spiritual powers. I also have three friends who _insist_ on questioning me about all the men in my life who are not family, and demand to know when I will finally realise that I am madly in love with the one that they thinks is best for me," she rattled off. "They also do not think much of your brother," she added dryly.

Sesshoumaru chuckled softly. "And why is that?"

"Despite my adamant protests that I am not, never have been and never will be in love with him, they insist on calling him 'my two-timing boyfriend'," Kagome explained.

"What is a boyfriend, and why do they give him this title of 'two-timing'?" Sesshoumaru asked.

Kagome chuckled herself, and recounted the conversation so long ago in WacDonalds where she had described InuYasha, Koga and Miroku to her friends and the resulting verdicts on each of the men, as well as their continuing insistence on Hojo (who she also described for Sesshoumaru) as the best match for her.

Sesshoumaru was laughing before she was even half-way through.

"You certainly seem to be feeling better now than when I found you," Kagome said as she finished with her story and eyeballed the laughing demon lord. "I'm fairly sure the only time I've even seen you give the smallest smile was when you were about to hurt someone or something, and here you are now, laughing at the foolishness that human females will become."

Sesshoumaru quieted his laughter and gazed out to the trees. "I have not had company capable of providing worthwhile conversation for _some time_," he answered. "Jaken you know, and Rin is too young and innocent yet."

Kagome nodded her understanding. "I'd ask about your family, but I _do_ know InuYasha," she said.

"Yes," Sesshoumaru agreed. "And I do not get along with my mother very well. We are similar and dissimilar enough to be almost permanently rubbing each other up the wrong way."

Then they were silent once more, and remained so until Kagome had finished removing all the blood she could from the kimono and the sun was beginning to go down.

"Will you go to the village now?" Sesshoumaru asked softly.

"And leave you here alone?" Kagome returned incredulously. "No, I'll set up my tent right here, grab some wood for a fire, and once that's done I'll change your bandages and set up a barrier around us."

"I've got wood for the fire Kagome!" came the bright young voice of Shippo from the edge of the forest and the clearing. "Can I stay with you and Sesshoumaru-sama tonight?"

Kagome laughed happily. "I don't mind Shippo," she answered. "But what about Rin-chan?"

"She's having dinner with Kaede then reading lessons with Sango, and she'll come here at first light tomorrow morning," Shippo answered, piling up the wood he'd collected in just the right way for a fire, and setting aside some extra logs for when it started to burn lower in the night.

Kagome set up her tent while Shippo built the fire, and then she turned to Sesshoumaru while her adopted son pulled blankets and sleeping bags out of her pack.

"I think if you eat something to help get your strength up, you'll be back at your usual peak by the time Rin-chan gets here in the morning," Kagome decided as she once more cleaned and applied helpful balms to Sesshoumaru's hurts before wrapping him up in clean bandages, setting the used ones to soak in boiling soapy water over the fire. Shippo alternately stirred the bandages with a wooden spoon and stirred a thick soup with a pair of long chopsticks. The soup Kagome had brought in a plastic container, but was now in a cooking pot over the fire to re-heat. It didn't need cooking and was something helpful that Shippo could do without hurting himself.

"I don't eat human food," Sesshoumaru stated, though his nose twitched.

"What _do_ you eat then?" Kagome asked, genuinely curious rather than frustrated. "Because believe me when I say humans can, have, and _will_ eat just about anything if they don't have any other options. Even each other."

Shippo's eyes went wide as he stared at Kagome. "Humans eat _each other_?" he asked.

"Not in general," Kagome explained. "But there are certain cultures where they feast on their defeated enemies, and there have been times of famine where immoral men killed those weaker than themselves and ate them so that they would survive. These people are called cannibals."

Shippo shuddered.

Kagome smiled and pulled him into her arms. "Don't worry Shippo," she said softly. "The cannibal cultures exist in a very distant land, and the Kami favour Japan so well that even in times of desperation for food, no human will ever feel that they must eat another."

"What do your history books say about famines in Japan instead?" Shippo asked.

Kagome's smile was sad, but understanding. "Older children in families were abandoned to fend for themselves," she said softly. "So that the smaller children who needed less would live, and so would the parents who needed more. You don't need to worry though. Even if food is scarce in one part of Japan, there will be food to be found in another. As I said, the Kami have blessed this land."

Shippo smiled brightly, gratefully, up at Kagome.

"Truly?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"Truly," Kagome answered. "In Japan's history, more people have been killed by fighting than by hunger or disease. We are fortunate to die so quickly as on the battlefield."

Sesshoumaru nodded, but he looked down to the missing arm that was normally hidden by flowing sleeve.

Shippo and Kagome both noticed this, and Kagome bit her lip slightly, wondering if there was some way she could fix it. She hit upon an idea at last, and examined it from every angle she could think of before finally speaking.

"It's worth a shot," she mumbled to herself, shifting herself around so that she was facing him rther than leaning over him, and gently wrapped her hands around the stump. Recalling carefully what she knew of the anatomy of the arm as it was for all creatures – because all creatures with bones and flesh were based off the same basic blue-print – Kagome drew on her power to tease out Sesshoumaru's own, and used both together to re-grow first the rest of the bone of the upper arm, then the flesh on it, then the elbow joint and the bones of the lower arm, and the flesh over them. The hand was more difficult. Hands were such clever things that of course they had to be, but Sesshoumaru's energies, his power and his natural healing ability, had caught on to what she was doing with _her_ power, and thankfully were able to do naturally what she would have needed to consult her anatomy book a few dozen times to make sure she had it right.

"Now you really _will _need to eat something," Kagome said firmly. "And so will I."

Shippo presented bowls to Kagome and she poured the soup out for all three of them.

"Just try it," she insisted, giving the bowl and a spoon to Sesshoumaru. "You need _something_."

"And it's good!" Shippo added happily, already slurping at his serving.

Sesshoumaru's nose twitched again as he lifted a hand – not the one that was newly re-grown, but the other one – to accept the bowl from Kagome. He ignored the spoon though and simply tipped the bowl up against his mouth as Kagome had previously given him water, slowly drinking down the thick soup. Occasionally he tipped the bowl back to chew on a lump of meat that was in the soup or to properly swallow some noodles, but it wasn't long before he was licking the bowl clean.

"Told ya it was good," Shippo said, beaming at the other demon.

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru agreed, his golden eyes on Kagome. "Very flavourful and most satisfying."

Kagome smiled contentedly. Having her cooking complimented by Sesshoumaru was probably the highest recommendation she would ever get. "I'm glad," she said softly. "Would you like more?"

Sesshoumaru looked from his bowl to the pot that still held some soup, back again, then nodded. "I believe that I would," he said, passing his bowl to her to refill. "Thank you."

Dinner with the two demons was pleasant for Kagome, and Shippo helped her wash up with water from her water-bottle before running off to refill the bottles and be back before she'd finished packing everything up. He came back with a few sticks as well. Long sticks that Kagome used to hang Sesshoumaru's cleaned kimono on to dry, and the bandages beside it. A blanket was wrapped around Sesshoumaru's shoulders so that he didn't have to suffer the chill of the evening (which he wouldn't have anyway because of his own fur) or the discomfort of the well through the whole night. He hadn't complained yet, but Kagome noticed the way the expression on his face eased slightly once the wool blanket was between him and the well.

Story time for Shippo came, and went, and she tucked the fox child up in a blanket at her side, and then she and Sesshoumaru talked of demons and humans and politics and the differences between the feudal era and her time until the sun began to rise – and a pair of small figures and a two-headed dragon appeared at the edge of the field.

"Kagome?"

"Yes Sesshoumaru?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

~The End~


End file.
